Nearly There- Tuesday Morning

Wow, it's almost over!

A weekend of knocking in Halls and I'm so impressed by the freshers I've met, they all seem so clued up...

If you haven't voted Please Please do, I get so frustrated by the people who say they don't want to vote, no matter what year you're in SUSU elections and the Sabb team are going to affect you!

Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the other Campaign teams for making this experience so much fun, especially those running for Welfare and Socs. The other candidates could have made the race really bitchy and unpleasant, but instead of finding opponents I've made new friendships and strengthened old ones, so what ever happens on Wednesday night I've had one of the best weeks of my university life!

Lots of love, don't forget vote.susu.org

Sophie

xxxx

Lost for Words

The last 24hours have left me lost for words in more ways than one!

Thursday was Winchester hustings which were absurdly poorly attended- something I'd defiantly seek to change if I'm elected. Winchester has so much untapped potential for societies and deserves all the welfare campaigning that goes on in Southampton!

Thursday night was Karaoke, our song still hadn't come on by 12.30 so we decided to head off to Jesters where we chatted to quite a few more people and I left my lovely campaign team at about 1.30 to go home and sleep.

Friday was a long day on concourse, did lots of lecture shout outs and found myself starting to flag but really picked up when we started giving out lots of Paterson Welfare love in the form of blue kisses, a much nicer way to tag people than with stamps or marker pen!

Friday night was epic, it started with the CU Unite meeting which just left amazed, I knew the CU is big but the passion and commitment outpouring from every person in that room was truly inspiring. I was frustrated that I couldn't say everything I wanted to in 60 seconds, and I had to dash off to organise sleeping equipment so I missed the end of the meeting. But I hope the people who were there will feel free to read my manifesto and chat to me on concourse if they have any questions!

After gathering lots of warm clothes and sleeping bags for later I hit Kinki with a team of Sophragettes and two blue men! The girls have come up with a catchy Sophie Paterson song to the tune of Valerie which they were serenading people with and it was good to chat to so many people.

At about 1am two keen campaigners and I joined up with the people from STAR and Amnesty to sleep out on the concourse to raise awareness for Assylum seekeers in this counrty being denied the right to work. It wasn't nearly as cold as I expected and aside from being woken by a rather strange man delivering papers at 5am we had a pretty good night's sleep!

Went home for breakfast and a well earned nap at about 9am. At 1.30 today I went to see Showstoppers production of Once on this Island... This was the best thing I have ever seen Showstoppers do, it was so simple and yet so effective, I cried about three times! The energy and passion involved with this performance and the months of hard work leading up to the show put me in a great mood to get around halls tonight. It reminded me just why we need to look at performance space, a show so awesome (despite a hellish tech run, iffy sight lines and a very squished looking band) deserves a better space than SUSU currently has to offer!

Hitting Beavois  Valley tonight, so look out for the Sophragettes and do say hello!

Much Love

Sophie x

Wednesday-day

Another manic day of campaigning, my throat is hurting already despite the lack of shouting and alcohol! It's been amazing though, I  really would recomend heading up to highfield to see all the cool stuff that's been happening on concourse.

We had a challenge to see how many people we could fit into the Vote Paterson tent- 11 we managed & will hopefully beat that score tomorrow, been chatting about policies and I'm loving all the intelligent questions from passers by!

On a more somber note it's a real shame to see all the vandalism against candidate's banners, posters, bunting etc. If you had any idea how long it takes to make all this stuff you'd leave it alone.

Even if you HATE democracy, and the idea of your concerns being represented in a union by other students who want to ensure you have the best possible university experience makes you want to chew your own arm off in disgust- it's just banners and posters, they're not hurting you and they're only around for 10 days a year!

Rant over! Anyway, I concluded my afternoon with 'meet the candidates' on SUSU Tv, lots of fun and many excellent points were made- also very impressed by how handy a certain Mr. Church is with a condom and an apple!

Kicked off the evening by stopping by the 'International Mother Language Day' arranged by the newly re-formed Bangladeshi Society- it included a fashion show, music, poems and some gorgeous food, a cracking 1st event!

Just taking some time to stop back at election HQ now before heading to the Stags to meet the Swim Team in half an hour- maybe see you out tonight!

Tuesday= So-Mental

Another busy day of Campaigning on Concourse plus Hustings, plus Gordons & So:Bar, I am SO tired right now!

Thank you to everyone who has given me such positive feedback from Hustings, it's great to know that so many people get what I'm on about!

 The Campaigners were out in force tonight too. Rammed doesn't begin to describe how busy it was, especially on the stairs- slightly scary! There was also lots of messy marker pen and plenty of chatting to new people:

 to the girl who asked me about both Criminology and Anthropology lacking their own Societies-  I would make it easier to start your own society, publicise how easy it is. You clearly feel very passionately about the issue and I expect your coursemates do too. So I'd encourage you to go ahead, grab 25 friends and acquaintances and make yourself the president of 'CrimeSoc'!

to the boy who was concerned about a noise complaint at 8.30 pm- This is the kind of issue that JCRs should be dealing with, I will work with the Newly SUSUed JCRs and the new JCR officer to provide welfare & representation through JCRS, so that you know exactly who to talk to and how to get problems sorted whilst living in Halls.

Struggling to keep my eyes open now,

Sophie

x

Wah Wah Wee Wah

Wow, what an amazing 1st day! It's been so crazy my face is still flushed and I feel like I'm sunburned, or maybe I'm just allergic to blue facepaint?

A few bemused people wandering around concourse wondering what position Prince Waterhouse Coopers is running for, and more than a couple of funny looks as my campaign team and I carry a fully erect tent up to Uni and back.

Looking forward to chatting to more people tomorrow and hustings should be pretty interesting too!

See you on the campaign trail- 

Paterson!

Busy Busy Busy

Wow things are so crazy at the moment. Mentally preparing for the epic experience that awaits with campaign week. However I've got two sets of rehearsals and a theatre workshop this weekend and I'm hoping to see some of the Varsity matches on Sunday afternoon, so not too much time to get ready!

I've decided to stay sober for the whole 10 days, until results night for two main reasons-

1. self preservation

2. Want to prove by example that you can have an awesome night out (or in this case 7 nights out) without getting wasted!

Can't wait to start Campaigning, good luck to everyone who's running, see you on the concourse!